Kerosene

[Intro] They won't take me alive [Verse1] Riding fast as I can, got the devil on my heels And a half-broke horse underneath All I own is what I have, tied to this saddle They want my life, but they won't take me I left my little farm a half-mile away Riding down this rocky mountain road All I had left was my good right hand My half-broke horse and a bottle of hope [Pre-Chorus] If the good Lord's willing, and the creek don't rise They won't take me alive [Chorus] Riding fast as I can through the blue-ridged pines With the shadows on my trail and blood in my eyes There was a place I'd been before, I rode straight to its door And I left my old life on that ground Took a lantern and a match and the shirt off my back And I burned that past life down [Verse2] They sent US Marshals from the closest town Said I shot my woman in cold blood And if I set one foot on my old homeplace They'd hang me on the courthouse lawn But I found an old cabin tucked up in the hills Where no one would ever go 'Cause they say it's haunted by a hermit that lived there Who shot his cheating bride years ago [Pre-Chorus] But the ghost don't mind me, and I like it here So I ain't going nowhere [Chorus] Riding fast as I can through the blue-ridged pines With the shadows on my trail and blood in my eyes There was a place I'd been before, I rode straight to its door And I left my old life on that ground Took a lantern and a match and the shirt off my back And I burned that old life down [Bridge] I know what you're thinking, I must be insane Just an old mountain man, living off the land And if the ghost of my woman could say a word to you She'd say I'm guilty as sin [Outro] They won't take me alive